HDMI to DisplayPort adapter question

[jure8479]

Hi,
I recently bought a DisplayPort (male) to HDMI (female) adapter to connect my laptop (via HDMI) to a Dell P2414H monitor. When I plugged one side of the adpter into the monitor and the other side (using a HDMI cable) into my laptop the monitor just displayed a "no signal" message.
A friend tested the same adapter with his monitor/computer and it also didn't work.
As a test I tried using the same adapter on my desktop computer, this time in reverse direction. I connected the DisplayPort output from my graphics card to a HDMI input on the desktop computer's monitor and it worked fine.

It seems this adapter works only in one direction. Is this normal for this type of adapter?
What adapter should I buy in order to convert the HDMI signal from my laptop for the DisplayPort on my monitor?

 

[laviniuc]

the signal for display port is more complex compared to hdmi/dvi. simple answer is you can't. imagine trying to hook a vga only laptop to a dvi input only monitor.

you're trying to get your laptop to output something it cannot. the other way around dp to hdmi it works because it's less "complex". (same thing happened with vga to dvi adapters they works only dvi -> vga and not the other way around)

why not use the dvi connector? instead of the dp on the monitor? hdmi to dvi works for sure.

 

[jure8479]

the signal for display port is more complex compared to hdmi/dvi. simple answer is you can't. imagine trying to hook a vga only laptop to a dvi input only monitor.

you're trying to get your laptop to output something it cannot. the other way around dp to hdmi it works because it's less "complex". (same thing happened with vga to dvi adapters they works only dvi -> vga and not the other way around)

why not use the dvi connector? instead of the dp on the monitor? hdmi to dvi works for sure.

Thank you for answering my question.
I am already using the monitor's DVI connector through a HDMI to DVI adapter. My original idea was to use the DisplayPort connector (via some HDMI -> DP adapter) so that I can have both my desktop and laptop computer connected, without the need to switch the cable every time. Currently I am using the VGA connector for the desktop and DVI (with the adapter) for the laptop.